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The Sunday Magazine

Michael's essay — Do we really need to spend $4-billion to build a new bridge to Michigan?

“The Trudeau government is fully behind the Gordie Howe International Bridge. But a troubling question, which might cross-check the Gordie Howe, has come up.”
CBC Radio ·
A photo of hockey great Gordie Howe was unveiled at the announcement that the Detroit River International Crossing will be named the Gordie Howe International Bridge, on the waterfront, in Windsor, Ontario, Thursday May 14, 2015. Federal officials have been on a months-long campaign to surreptitiously slip the name Gordie Howe into conversations with top-level American counterparts to promote the new border crossing that will bear the hockey player's name.
A photo of hockey great Gordie Howe was unveiled on the waterfront in Windsor, Ontario in May 2015, at an announcement that the Detroit River International Crossing will be named the Gordie Howe International Bridge. (Dave Chidley/The Canadian Press)

On Friday Nov. 15, 1929, 100,000 Americans jammed the Detroit side of the St. Clair River while 50,000 Canadians packed the Windsor side.

Even though the New York Stock market had collapsed two weeks earlier, kicking off the Great Depression, most of the people riverside were in a jolly mood.

They were there to celebrate the opening of the Ambassador Bridge connecting the two countries and dedicated to "the youth of Canada and the United States who served in the Great War."

At the time, it was the longest central span suspension bridge in the world at 1,850 feet.

The Ambassador Bridge links Detroit to Windsor. Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder and former Prime Minister Stephen Harper announced in 2012 that an agreement has been reached to build a new bridge between the two cities. (Bill Pugliano/Getty Images)
It served both countries well in its time. But in 2012, then Prime Minister Stephen Harper announced plans for a new crossing. He wanted it opened by 2018.

It would cost a little over $4-billion and in a novel wrinkle, Canada would pay for the entire cost. And it would be called the Gordie Howe Bridge.

The oddest thing about the Ambassador Bridge is that it is privately owned. 

The man who owns it is a reclusive Grosse Pointe, Michigan billionaire named Manuel (Matty) Maroun.

Because he and his family have made a nice living off the bridge for the last 35 years or so, he was naturally not overjoyed about the new span.

He sued to have the idea killed. A court threw out his lawsuit.

Hockey legend Gordie Howe (The Associated Press/Dawn Villella)
The Trudeau government is fully behind the Gordie Howe. In fact, federal officials have been quietly dropping the phrase Gordie Howe and bridge in conversations with important Americans.

But a troubling question, which might cross-check the Gordie Howe, has come up. Do we really need to spend more than $4-billion on a new bridge to Michigan?

An enterprising business journalist named Alan Freeman has reached some interesting conclusions.

Canada is supposed to receive all the revenue from the bridge it is financing to pay off construction costs. But Freeman has found that the revenue may not be there in the numbers the government predicts.

He has discovered that traffic across the Ambassador Bridge has been falling for the past few years.

After the 2008 recession, traffic fell precipitously and never recovered. Last year there were six million crossings — compared to 7.3-million crossings in 2008.

Overall there has been a 27 per cent drop in bridge traffic.

"In 2012, then Prime Minister Stephen Harper announced plans for a new crossing. He wanted it opened by 2018. It would cost a little over $4-billion and in a novel wrinkle, Canada would pay for the entire cost." (Romain Blanquart/Detroit Free Press/The Associated Press)
Freeman points out that there has not been a traffic forecast study for ten years.

He quotes one official as saying that no one in their right mind would be building a new bridge given current traffic volumes.

Freeman's argument is that the possible $4.8 billion price tag for the bridge could best be spent on other infrastructure projects, mass public transit for example.

As for honouring Gordie Howe; forget the bridge, name the Windsor airport after him.

Click 'listen' above to hear the essay. 

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